Differential exposure

Climate change hits the poor the hardest

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With the United Nations (UN) climate change conference, or the Conference of the Parties (COP29), scheduled to be held in less than a month, it is painfully evident that the climate crisis continues to escalate beyond the global efforts to temper it. While no country is immune to the impact of climate change, the world's poorest countries and people will bear the greatest burden. In this context, a recent research paper published by the World Bank gives interesting insights regarding the distributional consequences of climate change and global warming in South Asia. The paper uses spatially detailed data on climate shocks and relative wealth to examine household and firm exposure to extreme heat and floods in the wake of increased climate change-induced weather shocks. Across South Asian countries, places with lower wealth or poorer households are more exposed to heat, in both urban and rural areas. Additionally, in urban areas, places with lower wealth are more exposed to flooding. After all, poorer households h